PREVIOUS VINTAGES
All of our wines are estate grown at Bell Hill and go back to our first four vintages of Old Weka Pass Road Pinot Noir from 1999 to 2002 before our inaugural Bell Hill Pinot Noir 2003 vintage and Bell Hill Chardonnay 2004 vintage.
2020 VINTAGE
An early start to the season and prolonged frost protection - water was needed 3 times to protect the vines and the wind machine was utilised on many other mornings. The growing season progressed smoothly with very little rain leading to drought-like conditions. Our earliest start to picking for sparkling base wine began with the Roadblock on the 12th of March and still wine started on the 26th of March with the Shelf 98 and Shelf West “A”. A 50mm rain event after our first pick had us remembering the 2017 vintage but good conditions held for an ideal finish to the growing season with blocks picked without pressure from the weather. The timing of the Covid-19 pandemic meant operating under Lockdown conditions making for a very unusual experience. Social distancing and bubbles becoming the norm - we had a picking team within our bubble which allowed us to make optimal decisions for timing and ripeness. We finished on the 14th of April with the Slope.
Our winemaking philosophy is simple - Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blocks are multi-cloned and harvested, fermented, pressed, and put to barrel separately as individual blocks. This allows us to follow the evolution of the parcels for a year before making blending decisions and gives opportunities to evaluate Single Parcel potential. When we have good volume, we can split blocks for winemaking trials. The yeasts are natural, coming from the vineyard, with small natural starters from each parcel after the fruit has been processed into its fermenting vat (PN) or pressed into tank (CH). Malolactic fermentation is 100%, also natural. No fining or clarification agents are used, and filtration is minimal – coarse filtering for Chardonnay, the same for Pinot Noir from the racking valve down, or not at all. For Chardonnay, the first addition of sulphur is at 12 months when the wine comes out of barrel into tank. Pinot Noir sees an addition of sulphur at processing to protect the fruit during its cold maceration time and acid adjustments in the fermenter to stabilise pH for long term stability, colour, and ageing. The wine is then left alone and sulphured in tank after barrel ageing for 12 months. Small sulphur adjustments are made, if necessary, just before bottling.
Bell Hill
CHARDONNAY 2020
The Bell Hill Chardonnay is a 7-barrel blend of the Shelf, Roadblock, and Limeworks 2009 parcels. All fruit was whole cluster pressed and had 32% new French oak in its elevage of 12 months before racking and blending with a further 9 months in tank and bottling on the 19th of January 2022 with 3.39 pH, 6.3g/L TA and 13.5% alcohol. 2,089 bottles and 106 magnums were produced. A Single Parcel Limeworks Chardonnay of 654 bottles and 96 magnums will be released with the 2021 vintage.
Ripe, intense florals with sea breeze and mineral tones underlying a sweet-fruited nose. Good phenolic presence, in the riper spectrum, gaining tension with air and time, nice, dry-extract finish. The wine is very focused, and will shed its weight, coming to white florals in aroma and flavour, the fruit tones down giving a lemon meringue citrus drive, very salivating with a ripe salinity drive on the palate showing nervosity, energy and length.
BELL HILL
PINOT NOIR 2020
The Bell Hill Pinot Noir is a 15-barrel blend of the Shelf and Shelf West parcels, Quarry Rootlings and Quarry 10/5, the Roadblock and Slope. The fruit was mostly destemmed with some whole bunch trials in a batch of the Slope at 100% and the Quarry 10/5 at 35%, each block had 27 to 30 days on skins with cold pre-ferment and warm post-ferment macerations. After basket pressing, the wine went into 100% new French oak, was racked and blended after 12 months and had 8 months in tank before bottling on the 25th of January 2022 with 3.61 pH, 5.9g/L TA and 13.5% alcohol. 4,167 bottles and 106 magnums were produced. A Single Parcel Shelf Pinot Noir of 1,596 bottles and 100 magnums will be released with the 2021 vintage.
Attractive deep, spicy aromatic notes. On the palate we see flesh and vibrance with a taut, energetic core, a fine-tuned, mineral driven and focused finish. The wine has depth and lift, salivating and saline, with mid-palate flesh and a touch of sweet fruit, it needs time to shape its final form, but has fine-boned elegance complemented by a palate flowing finish.
BELL HILL
PINOT NOIR 2020
The Bell Hill Pinot Noir is a 15-barrel blend of the Shelf and Shelf West parcels, Quarry Rootlings and Quarry 10/5, the Roadblock and Slope. The fruit was mostly destemmed with some whole bunch trials in a batch of the Slope at 100% and the Quarry 10/5 at 35%, each block had 27 to 30 days on skins with cold pre-ferment and warm post-ferment macerations. After basket pressing, the wine went into 100% new French oak, was racked and blended after 12 months and had 8 months in tank before bottling on the 25th of January 2022 with 3.61 pH, 5.9g/L TA and 13.5% alcohol. 4,167 bottles and 106 magnums were produced. A Single Parcel Shelf Pinot Noir of 1,596 bottles and 100 magnums will be released with the 2021 vintage.
Attractive deep, spicy aromatic notes. On the palate we see flesh and vibrance with a taut, energetic core, a fine-tuned, mineral driven and focused finish. The wine has depth and lift, salivating and saline, with mid-palate flesh and a touch of sweet fruit, it needs time to shape its final form, but has fine-boned elegance complemented by a palate flowing finish.